Blade & Soul

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As the winner of our 2015 MMOsite Readers' Choice Awards, blade and soul gold will be officially launched on Jan.18th without Open Beta test, excited? Now let's take a Lesson for Gathering and Crafting in Blade & Soul before the game goes live, Of course you can check out our CN/KR gathering and crafting guide here.

It takes more than warriors to make the blade and soul power leveling world work. The Earthen Realm is filled with countless merchants, master crafters, and skilled artisans honing their work to perfection. Many have rallied together to form enormous guilds which reach every corner of the Realm, selling their wares and offering their services to the world... for the right price.

In a modern era of convenience, a warrior is no longer responsible for crafting their own equipment—it’s a practice better left to the professionals! Those looking to make use of the guilds simply need to speak with a Guild Representative, found commonly in major towns, to request a contract with the guild. It’s possible to establish contracts with a maximum of two Gathering Guilds and two Crafting Guilds at a time.

Specific Crafting Guilds use materials collected by specific Gathering Guilds, so it’s important that one does the necessary research to know which connections they want to make. While one can freely end contracts and start new ones at any time, one will lose their established reputation with the guild and need to start from scratch if they want to rejoin later!

Once a contract is established, a warrior can order various goods and services from a guild. After placing an order and paying a nominal fee, one must simply wait a while before the order is fulfilled for them. It’s best to place an order before adventuring, allowing the guilds to work in the meantime. All those wonderful items will be waiting when you return after a long day of righting wrongs and fighting monsters.

To the uninitiated, the story of Blade and Soul gold might look simply like an excuse to beat people up with Kung Fu, but it is actually a tale of loyalty, morality, revenge and redemption. Trying to play “Blade and Soul” without understanding Wuxia is a little like trying to play an FPS without understanding military culture; it’s possible, but you are probably missing a lot. So with that in mind, here’s a quick primer on what it means to exist in a Wuxia world.

Wuxia takes place in the Jianghu (“Jee-AHNG hoo”), which translates literally to blade and soul power leveling “rivers and lakes”. Jianghu is not a specific location, but really a way of describing the state of the world. It is a place of complications and chaos, a place where society is falling apart under the pressures of corruption and war, a place beset by the worst qualities of man and yet a place where the best qualities of man may still prevail. Government authorities are too corrupt to trust, so codes of honor must be adhered to instead of the law.

In the Jianghu exists the Wulin (“woo-lin”), or the society of martial artists. This is no organized group, but a community that anyone who has dedicated themselves to a martial discipline belongs to. The Wulin consists of many factions, sects, and brotherhoods under many masters, and each may be aligned, neutral to, or openly hostile to another.

The wushu, or martial arts, practiced by the Wulin are as varied as their clans. Skills are passed from master to student as they prove themselves worthy. Schools can specialize in hand to hand, swords, staves and other weaponry, and even more supernatural skills. Neigong (“nay-gong”), or “internal skill”, is the ability to focus qi (“chee”) or energy to heighten speed, strength, and stamina and even grant healing powers. Another mainstay of Wuxia is Qinggong (“ching-gong”), or “lightness skill”, which nearly circumvents gravity, allowing martial artists to propel themselves high into the air, to run up walls, or to even run across water.

The greatest martial arts techniques are usually recorded in an ancient text – a Secret Scripture or Tome – that imbues the owner with superhuman combat abilities. The secrets contained in this Tome are guarded fiercely and can be quite dangerous. They may cause harm to the practitioner if they are used wrongly… and they can be even more dangerous for the world if used correctly.

Both heroes and villains come from the Wulin, and what separates them is Xia (“shee-AH”), a code of honor that borrows heavily from Confucian morality. Xia means both “honorable” and “swordsman”; it requires its followers to be loyal, righteous and to help the poor or oppressed by righting wrongs committed against them. Wuxia heroes must follow their Xia and remain loyal to their clan, their family, and their true love. Often, heroes in these tales are young and inexperienced, and the story unfolds as they mature, master their arts, and grow as people.

External conflict in Wuxia always occurs between a person following the Xia and one who has fallen from it and is hurting the world; but just as important is the internal conflict every character in the Wulin faces when trying to balance their loyalties. Often, the way one goes about addressing conflicting loyalties will be the only thing defining them as hero or villain. However, not everyone is redeemable, and a hero must right the wrongs even if it means killing those who committed them. This is ultimately the heart of Wuxia, one person standing against all to make the world a better place, no matter the odds.

Chi is the life force of all creation. It is an unending force that blade and soul gold flows through all reality, connecting the realms and all living beings in its breadth. Despite how prevalent this mystical, invisible energy is within the world, it is still highly misunderstood by most. Learning to Windwalk by manipulating one’s chi is something even children can do. But truly mastering the awesome power of chi may take a lifetime of rigorous training, yielding abilities beyond comprehension.

Chi

Often somewhat mistakenly referred to as “Pure Chi”. Living creatures have chi blade and soul power levelingas well, which is directly related to their health and martial prowess. The true martial artists of the world have mastered their inner focus to perform stunning feats and demonstrate otherworldly powers. Most anyone can Windwalk, but few bear the particular skills to harness the flow of chi in the world necessary to control Dragon Pulses. These natural wellsprings of chi can be manipulated, allowing a powerful martial artist to bend space and time, traveling long distances in an instant.

Divine Chi

Beyond the Earthen Realm rests the unseen Divine Realm, where the pure-hearted spirits and enlightened beings watch over the world. Their chi is pristine and mighty, bearing a power that echoes through the ages. The royal family of the Stratus Empire gained the blessings of the Divine beings in ancient times and thus all its descendants bear a hint of that Divine Chi within them, passing from generation to generation.

Dark Chi

For every light, there is a shadow. Dark Chi is a malevolent poison that spews from the Dark Realm. Demons spread it whenever they are able, using its raw power to corrupt both the earth and its people. Anything that bears chi within it runs the risk of being tainted by this horrid energy. Normal civilians stand no chance against it as their bodies die and transform into Demons. Powerful martial artists may fend off the effects of Dark Chi for a time through intense focus, but they will eventually succumb to its toxic influence as the darkness seeps into their mind. Truly powerful beings may still fall under its influence and transform into nightmarish monstrosities.

Demonic Pacts

Worse still are those unsavory souls who actively seek out Dark Chi, drawn to its alluring power. By focusing on their rage, greed, or other earthly vices that keep them from enlightenment, they try to use the Dark Chi to their own ends. Manipulative Demons seek out these evil souls, promising them immortality or endless fonts of power so that they further spread their chaotic influence. While the baleful energy does indeed grant inhuman prowess, it is only temporary. The Dark Chi is a starving animal that will inevitably devour them, body and soul, as it seeks to spread across all the realms.

Long story short, some friends and I are looking to get started on NA BnS in January, so I thought to get myself briefed with basics on the TW server first (I can read Chinese), rolled a BM, then I proceeded to being absolutely clueless about how to properly play the class. I'm only level 20 so I know my skill set is incomplete. You can gather more Blade And Soul Gold online to arm your Blade Master. But still, I don't feel as I'm playing it correctly. The only other action mmo I've played as dragon nest a long time ago.

I have searched some guides but they don't make much sense to new players as they mostly focus on skill builds assuming the reader knows all the tricks and plays.

First few things the combat system caught me off guard is the lack of hit stun, the inability to dodge roll, and the slow movement speed in combat. There isn't a button to put away the weapon to Sprint is there. 90% of the time the enemy and I were just plants on the ground trading hits and not moving.

Usually I deal with the field enemies this way: block then RB spam. However, I'm not certain if it's a latency problem, but to successfully block I need to stop all other actions before it as it doesn't seem to just cancel the current animation. I get the feeling I'm probably doing it wrong. As I would get overwhelmed when there are multiple enemies on me.

Then there's the draw stance, how often should it be used? It's a dps stance by the looks of it, but the regular attacks seems slow which leaves me more open to not being able to block properly, and what is the RB LB cancelling I've heard a lot about?

Also, the LB attack seems painfully slow, in fact, chaining any 2 different attacks together seems slow. Are there timed animation cancels?

Lastly, team play and boss fights. I just went through my first 6man dungeon and I was clueless, do I just use my AoEs and what not?